FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE, March 22, 2020, Los Angeles,CA –The House passed the American Dream and Promise Act, HR6, which would provide a path to citizenship for DACA recipients, undocumented youth, the children of certain nonimmigrant visa hold2ers, Temporary Protected Status (TPS) and Deferred Enforced Departure (DED) holders. The House also passed the Farm Workforce Modernization Act, HR 1603, a bill that would offer undocumented farmworkers a path to citizenship.
Asian Americans Advancing Justice Southern California and Advancing Justice – AAJC released the following statement:
We applaud today’s historic passage in the House of Representatives of the American Dream and Promise Act, HR6. The American Dream and Promise Act, HR6, responds to an immediate and urgent need to offer a path to citizenship for DACA recipients, undocumented youth, the children of certain nonimmigrant visa holders, Temporary Protected Status (TPS) and Deferred Enforced Departure (DED) holders. Over a hundred thousand Asian undocumented immigrants and around 15,000 Nepali TPS holders and tens of thousands of Asian youth on nonimmigrant visas would benefit under the bill.
We also applaud the United Farm Workers and their partners in the passage of the hard-fought for Farm Workforce Modernization Act, HR1603, which would offer a path to citizenship for undocumented farmworkers.
These bills are important racial justice and civil rights bills that bring us one step closer to legalizing the 11 million undocumented immigrants.
While we believe it was crucial to move these bills forward and provide urgent relief for millions of people and their families, we continue to object to the harmful criminal bars to legalization and adjustment of status, particularly those in HR6. Our criminal legal system disproportionately harms Black and Indigenous people and people of color. Asian Americans Advancing Justice | AAJC believes that all people deserve to be treated with dignity, as whole people and that people deserve second chances. As this bill moves forward to the next phase, we will work to have these harmful criminal bars stripped out of the bill.
We congratulate all of the undocumented youth, DACA recipients, TPS holders, farm workers and their organizations on their organizing and hard work to make this win happen.
Contact:
Liza Ameen, Asian Americans Advancing Justice Southern California, (213) 977-7500 x258, lameen@ajsocal.org
About Asian Americans Advancing Justice Southern California:
Asian Americans Advancing Justice Southern California (AJSOCAL) is the nation’s largest legal and civil rights organization for Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians, and Pacific Islanders (AANHPI). Through direct services, impact litigation, policy advocacy, leadership development, and capacity building, Asian Americans Advancing Justice Southern California focuses on the most vulnerable members of Asian American and NHPI communities while also building a strong voice for civil rights and social justice.
